Agricultural and Industrial Heritage Design Showcase
About
This event celebrates the Victorian Heritage Festival at the Geelong Showgrounds Museum, which opens regularly on the first Sunday of each month 10 am - 2 pm. For the Festival, on May 3 the opening hours are extended to 4 pm.You will see how Geelong and its society have changed since it was settled in 1835 - and how an invention here helped humanity's health and wellbeing to change and improve.
Geelong was a colonial backwater, but world-wide change was led by James Harrison's remarkable invention of refrigeration just 20 years after John Batman had arrived here.
For the Heritage Festival on Sunday May 3 the Vintage Machinery Display next door will also be open for you to tour, and you can also see the progress of the ambitious Linde Machine Project.
Vintage Machinery Group members will soon rebuild a very large refrigeration compressor used at Jackson’s Meat Works from 1909 to 1967 to freeze huge quantities of Western District meat for export. This landmark will show how the development of Harrison's invention contributed to the region's wealth and manufacturing diversity, changing it forever.
Both the Museum and Vintage Displays hold many treasures from early farm machinery, records of Geelong’s industrial heritage of foundries and manufacturers, and dairying essentials in the 1910s - 50s to proud Show trophies. Ted Stephens' informative panels on many industries and individuals line the walls.
James Harrison features in the display, and you can see the 2022 ABC Landline video 'A Very Cool Idea – discovering the inventor of refrigeration'.
Dates
Sunday 3 May 2026 (UTC+10)Location
Geelong Showgrounds Museum
79 Breakwater Rd East Geelong 3219, Gate 2; Turn L on Showman's Alley, EAST GEELONG VIC 3219
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Agricultural and Industrial Heritage Design Showcase
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